Q&A: Logical Positivism
Logical Positivism
Question
Hello and blessings.
I read your columns dealing with the question "What is philosophy?" And according to your definition of philosophy as "insights derived from non-sensory observations about reality," it would seem that logical positivism cannot be considered a philosophical school, since it makes claims about language, not about reality. Did I understand correctly?
Answer
It makes claims about reality. Its claim is that anything that is not the product of observation does not really exist. In other words, it claims that there is no ideal apprehension (non-sensory observation). That is a claim in philosophy, just as the claim that there is no God is a claim in theology.
Discussion on Answer
It depends which shade of positivism. The more extreme versions claim that there is no such thing. But even if one says there is no way to talk about it, that too is a philosophical statement that we have no way to know it, as I wrote above.
It seems to me that the Rabbi once wrote that logical positivism does not forbid us to believe in what is not the product of observation (for example, to believe in God), but rather claims that we have no way to talk about it. (As Leibowitz understood Maimonides' doctrine of the "negation of attributes": that we can know that there is a God, but we cannot say anything about Him.)